In manufacturing magnetic recording tape cassettes there are used various tape treating machines. One example of a tape treating machine is a magnetic recording tape loading machine wherein a magnetic recording tape is loaded into a tape cassette chamber with both end portions of a roll of a magnetic recording tape fitted with the corresponding leader tapes fixed to the respective hubs already mounted in a tape chamber of the tape cassette. Other examples of tape treating machines are such as a music tape recording machine and a performance test machine.
A tape cassette feeding machine for use in a tape treating machine is described in U.S. Pat. No. 406,286. The tape cassette feeding machine described therein is shown in FIGS. 18 and 19, of the instant application wherein a plurality of tape cassettes 2 to be treated are laid in a lateral attitude and stacked one above the other as shown in FIGS. 18 and 19 in a vertical magazine 120. The vertical magazine 120 is so bent as to provide an arcuate path at the bottom portion thereof whereby the respective tape cassettes 2 move downwardly changing the vertical attitude when passing through the arcuate path. The lowest cassette is taken out from the opening 121 defined in the bottom end of the magazine 120, one at a time.
The tape cassette feeding machine disclosed in the prior art has, however, such drawbacks that each of the cassettes must be placed manually into the path of the magazine 120 from the top opening adjusting the attitude of the cassette, making the system inefficient, preventing from automatic treating of the tape cassettes. A further drawback inherent in the prior art cassette feeding machine is that each of the tape cassettes has to be supplied to the path of the magazine 120 oriented in the same direction, otherwise the magnetic recording tape could not be properly loaded in a cassette chamber. With the top face and the bottom face of the cassette reversed, the magnetic recording tape would be taken up by an undesired hub.
Furthermore, the respective tape cassettes already treated are discharged downwardly with a random attitude, so that they must be collected again reorienting the attitude or must be put in a delivery box for transferring the cassettes to the subsequent process. These steps are also troublesome.